I’ve tracked the world’s wealthiest people for Forbes for more than 16 years, first as an enterprising reporter and later as the editor who oversees all our global wealth coverage and ultimately signs off on the final ranks of the world’s billionaires. Over the years, I have valued everything from Polish telecom companies to property on the Black Sea Coast to an African game park. I have gotten to travel as far as Iceland, Singapore and South Africa to meet these folks at their homes, in their hotel rooms and on their yachts. Handling highly confidential and sensitive information is a critical part of my job, as is figuring out who to trust. It is never dull and I am always trying to uncover new information and out new billionaires. Any tips, email me at lkroll@forbes.com

Yet Another Former Billionaire Ends Up Behind Bars

Once Ireland’s richest man with a personal fortune of $6 billion, Sean Quinn, headed to jail this morning to serve out a nine-week sentence. He was convicted Friday morning, according to the Guardian, of contempt of court and, more specifically, for preventing the seizure of his international assets, “which the state-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), the former Anglo Irish Bank, won the right to recover in June.”

According to the BBC, he was taken from Dublin High Court in a police van to begin his sentence. He could have chosen to apply for a stay on the sentence but lawyers told the court he decided to serve out his term. Quinn, who the BBC says asked for compassionate leave to attend the christening of one of his grandchildren, will be due to be released on January 4. His son Quinn Jr. has also served three months in jail for contempt.

Quinn apparently told reporters that he would not walk away from the decision, but that the legal battle that led to his conviction was a “charade,” in which they took his money and company away, put him in jail but “have proven nothing.”

He is now one of at least five billionaires or former billionaires around the world currently behind bars. Others include China’s Wong Kong Yu, who like Quinn was a legendary entrepreneur in his country before his downfall (Wong is still a billionaire, however); Russia’s former billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who many claim is stuck behind bars because of his political opposition to Vladimir Putin; and former billionaire swindler Allen Stanford, who is serving out a 110-year sentence. At least three others have served time and still others, like Silvio Berlusconi and Hong Kong’s Kwok brothers, are fighting convictions that could land them in prison.

Quinn, who had allegedly owed billions to IBRC, had filed for voluntary bankruptcy almost exactly a year ago. It was quite a fall from grace for an entrepreneur who was once one of Ireland’s most admired businessmen. He started out in the early 1970s selling sand and gravel from a quarry on his father’s farm and eventually built his Quinn Group into a multi-billion dollar mining, manufacturing, real estate and insurance empire. At his fortune’s peak, Sean Quinn was ranked the 164th wealthiest man on the planet in Forbes’ annual ranking of the world’s billionaires.

But it all began to fall apart in 2008 with the outbreak of the global financial crisis. At the height of Ireland’s real estate boom Quinn had bought shares of Anglo Irish Bank with risky financial instruments known as contracts for difference that allowed him to amass an apparent 25% stake in the bank, using borrowed money from Anglo. When the property market collapsed, the shares plummeted, becoming worthless when the bank was nationalized in 2009.

Unable to pay his hefty debts to the bank, Quinn was forced to turn over his Quinn Group, itself indebted to Anglo to the tune of $1.85 billion, to the bank in April 2011. At that time, Anglo released a statement declaring simply that it was “owed an enormous amount of money by Sean Quinn and his family which they are not in a position to repay. The security on these loans is the family’s equity in the Quinn Group.” Quinn conceded at the time: “I cannot now pay those loans which are due, following Anglo taking control of the Quinn Group of companies, which I and a loyal team spent a lifetime building, I find myself left with no other alternative.” Quinn also accepted a certain amount of responsibility for the current state of affairs, saying that “I am certainly not without blame.” But he also blamed the bank and Irish government, accusing them of purposefully undermining the Quinn Group.

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